Clean-up operation at the nuclear
accident site at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

Table 1. Multi-layered
structure within the nuclear power station and wages in 2000
350 companies were involved in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station

Presence of subcontractors affiliated with crime syndicates and their
employees

Two local newspapers in Fukushima Prefecture have
recently reported that businesses affiliated with crime syndicates are
involved in the clean-up operation at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Power Station. One of them is the Fukushima Min-yu Shimbun,
which reported in its May 23 issue that on May 22 the Koriyama City
police and the Futaba Gun (County) police arrested leading members of a
gangster group affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai crime syndicate based
in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture. According to the newspaper, they
were charged with violation of the Temporary Staffing Services Law by
dispatching five to six members of the group to the nuclear power
station for the clean-up operation.
Prior to this, another local newspaper, the
Fukushima Mimpo, reported on May 15 that the president of Watanabe
Kogyo Ltd. in Naraha Town was arrested on suspicion of illegally
possessing a gun. He was deeply involved in the staffing of the nuclear
power station and was the president of the local chamber of commerce
and industry, as well as a member of the Fukushima Prefecture Nuclear
Power Plant Town Information Council *, the
newspaper said.
These incidents indicate that the businesses based
near the nuclear power station and run by people linked to the yakuza
(crime syndicate gangs) are deeply involved in the staffing of the
nuclear power plant for the purpose of making profits for their
executives and employees. At the same time, Tokyo Electric Power Co.
(TEPCO) is also making the most of such people, despite its position as
a public utility company. In other words, TEPCO and the yakuza have
built up a structure of mutual interdependence. In Japanese workplaces
where dangerous, tough and demeaning jobs have to be done, there is a
tradition that crime syndicates are involved in the recruitment of
workers. Nuclear power stations are no exception. In the extremely
difficult clean-up operation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power
Station, it is highly probable that businesses affiliated with crime
syndicates and their employees will increase their presence.
As Table 1 shows, approximately 350 businesses are
participating in the clean-up operations at the Fukushima Daiichi
plant. They form a pyramid-shaped, multi-layered subcontractor system
with TEPCO at the top of the pyramid. Under the utility, there are
plant makers, subsidiaries of TEPCO and the plant makers, large,
medium- and small-sized construction and repair companies, independent
master carpenters and plumbers, and so on.
Japanese nuclear power stations are required to
conduct a regular inspection once every 13 months. Originally, it took
around three months to carry out the inspection, which included
changing the nuclear fuel rods, thorough checks of facilities and
equipment, replacement of old parts and consumables with new ones,
remodeling of some facilities, and inspection by the government. Three
plant makers, Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries Ltd., received orders from TEPCO, and then allocated the
orders to their subcontractors. However, the partial liberalization of
the Japanese electric power generation market in 1997 brought a number
of changes to this practice.
Taking advantage of the occasion, TEPCO designated
its subsidiaries as the principal subcontractors and slashed repair and
other costs as much as possible. At the same time, the company pressed
the subcontractor to shorten the time required for a regular
inspection, triggering competition within the market. It is said that
the smaller and weaker companies dropped out of the race in this
process, and the pyramid-shaped system of subcontractors was reduced by
several layers. The result of this was that workers hired by
higher-level subcontractors enjoyed favorable conditions concerning the
type of employment, working conditions, working period, and type of
work, while those working for the lowest-level subcontractors were
forced to accept the worst working conditions. Workers hired by the
lowest-level subcontractors were paid only around 5,000 yen per day,
and were not covered by social insurance or employment insurance.
In the case of the workers currently employed by the
lowest-level subcontractor and engaged in the clean-up operation at the
Fukushima nuclear power station, the current average daily wage is said
to be 8,000 yen, although TEPCO pays 60,000-70,000 yen per capita to
the principal subcontractor. This is because each of the subcontractors
from the top to the bottom of the subcontracting pyramid takes a cut
from the workers’ wages.
Koshiro Ishimaru has been participating in the
Futaba Region Anti-Nuclear Power Plant Federation since the 1970’s,
supporting the nuclear power plant workers’ efforts to win workers’
compensation. “Because I couldn’t bear the situation where workers
could not stand up against the power of the companies and openly tell
the truth, I established the Anti-Nuke Information Center in 1979,” he
said. Mr. Ishimaru launched activities to support nuclear power plant
workers’ attempts to win official recognition for their injuries and
sicknesses as those eligible for official compensation, and conducted
surveys on radiation damage to their health.
Although he himself was affected by the severe
accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in March 2011
and is currently evacuated to Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, he is
serving as the representative of the organization. We have learned a
lot from Mr. Ishimaru’s activities and surveys. The following are
noteworthy comments he has made in negotiations with TEPCO, and the
pledges he and his group have obtained from TEPCO.
The late Nobuhiro Sato, who worked at the nuclear
power plant for a long time said the severe, dangerous and demeaning
working conditions at the plant are a magnet for the increased presence
of crime syndicates and their front companies. According to Mr. Sato,
there are no other workplaces better fitted to the yakuza than nuclear
power plants. Their strict hierarchical relationship between the group
leader and the members works effectively for getting jobs done at the
plant. The plant workers change into protective garments before they
enter the radiation-controlled areas, and this is the time when
gangster group members show off their tattoos to the other workers.
Thus, troubles in workplaces can be suppressed by force, said Mr. Sato.
Mr. Ishimaru and his group, together with Mr. Sato,
complained to TEPCO in October 2005. They claimed that the
multi-layered subcontractor system was causing a great deal of trouble
at the nuclear power plant. According to them, some of the workers were
yakuza group members and had tattoos, which was an abnormal situation
for a public utility.
“Illegal acts, such as the forgery of health reports
and registered seal impressions (the equivalent of forging a signature
or an official rubber stamp), and not allowing workers to subscribe to
health insurance and employees’ pension plans, are rampant,” they said.
In response, TEPCO said the work contract refers to quality control,
methods of construction, completion of the work, etc., and that the
problems with the worker’s body or personality are not mentioned.
TEPCO also said the company summoned the deputy
chief of the Tomioka Town Police and asked him to give the
subcontractors a lecture on how to deal with crime syndicates in
staffing the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in an attempt to raise
their awareness of such problems. This remark indicates that TEPCO
implicitly admitted the presence of crime syndicates in the plant, but
used the work contract as an excuse for evading a direct response to
the workers’ demands.
Furthermore, Mr. Sato accused TEPCO of poor
management of the plant workers. “Worker accidents are usually covered
up inside the nuclear plant. Even if workers suddenly fall ill, they
are not allowed to call an ambulance. In my case, after having
been left unattended for three hours, I was taken to hospital in a
colleague’s car. I therefore suffered aftereffects later and became
physically handicapped. Of all accidents occurring in the nuclear power
station, 90% were concealed.”
Referring to the presence of yakuza in the plant, he
asked TEPCO, “Do you know that gangsters and their affiliated-company
employees are working at the plant with impunity, betting on baseball
games and gambling with Hanafuda (Japanese playing cards) in the
workplaces? TEPCO is responsible for the management of the plant
workers.” TEPCO officials tend to fall silent when something
disadvantageous to their position and hard to respond to is mentioned.
That is the attitude they took in this case.
One year later, in 2006, TEPCO reportedly attempted
to drive the gangsters and their affiliated companies out of the plant,
but gave up because these people took a defiant attitude and threatened
TEPCO by saying, “Do it if you think you can.” Asked about the truth of
this incident in further negotiations TEPCO refused to admit that the
incident had occurred.
Apparently, TEPCO had a great deal of trouble
dealing with two major problems. One of them was illegal conduct and
the cover-up of worker accidents, and the other was crime syndicates
and their affiliated companies. As for the former problem, the
situation has improved considerably. Currently, ambulances are
allowed to come into the nuclear power station and there is a doctor
onsite 24 hrs a day. However, the latter problem is still beyond
TEPCO’s control because the subcontractor system is deeply
multi-layered and complex, and because the yakuza are so deeply
entrenched in the system.

(Mikiko WATANABE, CNIC)

* The scandal over falsified inspection records and concealed problems
by TEPCO at its nuclear power plants came to light in 2002. This
23-member conference, set up in the wake of this incident, was composed
of five residents each from four towns where nuclear power plants are
located, one intellectual, and the managers of the No.1 and No.2
nuclear power stations in Fukushima Prefecture. The Nuclear and
Industrial Safety Agency, the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy,
and the Fukushima Prefectural government joined the organization as
observers. The first meeting was held on February 1, 2005, subsequent
meetings being held continuously until immediately before the nuclear
accident in Fukushima in March, 2011.